Exciting Times Ahead
by Dekadeci
Summary: [Super Bust a Move] Semi sequel to Progeny of the Scientist. When a new member joins the SBAM League, what processes must he or she go through? Take a look as you see Mogu, the brother of Mog, go through that same process.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: You should have read Progeny of the Scientist before this, but if not, I'll say everything again.

I don't own Taito. Square Enix does. I don't own Square Enix. I don't even own a share of Square Enix.

I don't own the Bust-a-Move/Puzzle Bobble series. I also don't own the following characters: Wolo, Pinky, Miss T, Catch, Tom and Yam, Mog, Mr. At, Katze, Pukadon, Fungila, Bubblun, and Bobblun.

The following characters may be confused with the ones above, but I still own them: Green Wolo, Winky, Pink T, Bom and Sam, Moga, Mogu, Katze the Experimenter, and Fungilo.

I own all other characters and places, especially if you have not heard of them from other sources.

All at signs have been replaced with the word At. The Fanfiction site censors all language-unrelated characters, so I can't spell the white robot's name properly.

I don't even own a copy of Super Bust-a-Move. It was fun to play in my cousin's house, though.

I have never played Super Bust-a-Move 2, so this is probably not canon to it. Don't blame me, though...

Fungila is female in all my Bust-a-Move/Puzzle Bobble fics, and Katze will never get her gender right. (Yes, this is a breach from Super Bust-a-Move canon.)

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Chapter 1**

Hi. I'm Mogu, and I'm a red Mog. You may not have heard of me, so I'll explain. I'm Mog and Moga's brother, so I have experience with them. I don't live too far from them, even though I live in a separate house.

Anyway, one day I heard of this SBAM League from Moga. She said she's found many friends there. She also said that all the members play something called Bust-a-Move. Since both of my siblings are in this league, I decided to join, even though I have no idea how to play this game.

From their advice, I drove to their house and knocked on the door. It opened to reveal a blue Bobblesaur that I've only heard of from my sisters' accounts. That Bobblesaur was quite enthusiastic, as he bounced around when he greeted me.

"Hi, welcome!" he greeted. "Are you just visiting, or are you thinking of joining?"

I cleared my throat and responded. "Actually, I'd like to join this league of yours."

"Good!" the blue Bobblesaur cheerfully replied. "I'll get out the records. What's your name?"

"Mogu," I responded, and he wrote it down. Then I asked, "What's yours?"

"Bobblun," he answered. "Oh, and do you have experience with playing Bust-a-Move?"

"No," I answered. "I don't even know how to play it. Can you please show me?"

"Of course!" Bobblun replied. "I'll show you, and I'll pit you against Yam for a trial run. You'll be going through everyone for exhibition rounds afterward."

He led me to a weird machine with a winch and a pointer. I wasn't too sure what any of the gizmos on it were for.

"This pointer aims your bubble, which will be here." The Bobblesaur pointed to the base of the pointer. "You turn the pointer with this winch. Clockwise is right. Anticlockwise goes the other way. Want to try?"

I put my right hand on the winch and turned it clockwise. The pointer also went to the right.

"The bubbles come from here," Bobblun said as he stood to the right part of the machine. "Bubblun or I might be blowing them, or we might be using a bubble machine. Anyway, you can see what bubbles you'll be getting one bubble in advance."

"What's the point of this game?" I asked.

"Oh, yes! You shoot the bubbles at each other, and they settle at the top. If three or more bubbles of the same colour come together, they'll all pop. If there's any bubbles below them, they might fall, too. You shoot the bubbles by pulling this switch." He pointed to a little lever near the winch.

"Okay," I replied. "How many bubbles do you shoot at one time?"

"One," the Bobblesaur responded. "I thought it was obvious."

"Oh. What colours of bubbles are there?"

"Ah, there's red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, grey, rainbow, star, and hindrance! Then again, you won't be seeing black and grey too often."

"What are those rainbow, star, and hindrance bubbles? And are black and grey colours?"

"Black and grey are colours, and I'll explain those other bubbles now. Rainbow bubbles adopt the colour of any popping groups that are adjacent to them. Star bubbles are like colour bombs: they pop all bubbles of the same colour as any new bubbles that hit them. And the hindrance bubbles aren't exactly bubbles. We tend to call them hindrance blocks, and they'll get in the way. You can't get rid of them until you get rid of all the bubbles next to them."

"And I'm supposed to win by…"

"Since we mainly do versus, you're supposed to make your opponent lose. You lose by having your pile of bubbles go past this line." He pointed to a horizontal line just above the pointer. "You can make the other guy lose by sending out your attack pattern."

"What's that?"

"Whenever you drop additional bubbles (as in you remove all the bubbles adjacent to them), you'll send the bubbles making your attack pattern to them. They might settle at the top or bottom of their pile, depending on your pattern. Individual bubbles will fall on them if you do a small attack, and whole rows of them will settle if you do a big attack."

"What are those types of attacks?"

"You'll do a small attack if you only drop a few bubbles. If you drop a ton, you'll do a big attack. Anyway, want to select your attack pattern?"

"Yes, but do you have any examples?"

"Of course, we have tons! You could do your sisters' styles: they both send the opponent's attack pattern back at them, only from below. Or you could try Pinky and Winky's: they only use rainbow bubbles. Maybe Catch and Reichu's attack pattern might do, as they're like Mog and Moga but they do it from the top. Or perhaps you could try red, green, and yellow bubbles like Tom, Yam, Bom, and Sam…"

"All right, cut the suggestions. I might need to think for a while."

Indeed, I did think for a while. Unfortunately, I also wanted an attack pattern that wasn't like anyone else's, so I asked Bobblun for everyone else's attack patterns.

"Ah, you want the rest, don't you? Well, the Wolo twins do stuff like your sisters, except they do it from both top and bottom. The Delfins' and the Kazes' attack patterns all use rainbow, star, and regular bubbles, but those patterns aren't the same. Pukadon and Kame use hindrance blocks in their attack patterns, but they use normal bubbles otherwise. Mr. At and Blackup are much like the four Izzards in their attack patterns, except both the robots use blue bubbles, too. And Fungila and Fungilo use black bubbles along with their regular mix. Oh, by the way, if I'm specifying the types of bubbles they use, they're loading the bottom of the opponent's pile."

"That's long," I replied, and then I thought some more. I eventually settled on an attack pattern that was much like Mr. At and Blackup's, but only from the top.

"Hmm, that's creative…anyway, want to try your luck against Yam? He isn't too good, but Tom'll accompany him, so at least the tyke will be more confident."

"Guess so, since now I know how to play and I've already decided on my attack pattern."

Bobblun revealed another Bust-a-Move machine just like mine, which was next to it. Then he went away, returning with another green Bobblesaur and two Izzards. One of them looked older than the other, who was currently huddled into the elder's body.

"Yam, you can come out now," I heard the elder Izzard say.

The younger Izzard (who I assumed was Yam) peeked out of the older one's legs and at the machine. He hobbled towards it, as if he was a bit afraid of it.

"Fine, I'll go too," the older Izzard grunted as he also walked to his machine. The younger Izzard became substantially faster after that.

"And I'll be providing the bubbles for them, Bobblun," the green Bobblesaur declared.

"Okay, Bubblun," the blue Bobblesaur replied, then spat a series of bubbles in my area.

"Hey! What are you doing?" I cried, even though I noticed that neither Izzard thought this was unusual.

"We're stocking the start bubbles for you to shoot at," Bobblun responded as he spat another bubble.

"Okay," I replied. There was only a short pause until Bobblun shouted, "Start!"

Yam didn't look too confident as he turned his winch, so I didn't feel so bad. I turned my winch slowly, constantly checked the pointer and its current bubble, and occasionally pulled the trigger when I thought the alignment was right. I noticed Yam did it just as slowly as I did.

It took me a while for me to do what Bobblun called a "small attack", and even then the blue Bobblesaur restrained me.

"You can't do it now!" he exclaimed.

"Why?" I innocently asked.

"You picked a top-attacking strategy, so you fill the opponent's area with whole rows only. You can't do a small attack, but you can accumulate a couple of them to form a big attack."

"Sorry," I replied, and continued with my playing.

After a while, I had an opportunity to do a big attack, so I did. When I did my achievement dance (Bobblun told me to do it), I saw that Yam's field was being filled with red, blue, green, and yellow bubbles from the top, just like I had selected. Poor Yam was looking distraught, but then he managed to drop a few bubbles.

After that, I saw a couple of red bubbles fly up towards my area. I was a bit perplexed, but then I remembered that the enemy had an attack pattern, too. I continued with my game. Soon, I got faster and more accurate.

After a long while and a couple other big attacks, I finally won. Bobblun congratulated me, but wasn't surprised.

"Yam's bad at this, but get Tom to play and he's much better. You should try playing against everyone in this league, so you'll go through exhibition matches against everyone. You'll try against Wolo next. He should be done with his game soon."

From what I heard from Bobblun's summary, Wolo might be a rather tricky character to play against. I would try my luck in a few minutes…


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Repeat.**  
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**Chapter 2**

I waited a couple of minutes for Wolo's game to finish. That turned into about half an hour, but I finally got a sign. Bobblun beckoned me to another Bust-a-Move machine, so I followed.

I saw the Wule I assumed to be Wolo with no one else around. Bobblun explained that Wolo would be playing with a bubble machine instead of one of the Bobblesaurs. He then complained that none of who I assumed were his siblings would help him out. I didn't want to listen to that.

After the blue Bobblesaur's tirade, he finally calmed down, spat out the starting bubbles, and said, "Ready?"

Wolo nodded his head, so I did too.

Bobblun then shouted, "Start!"

I quickly realized that this blue Wule was better than me. I noticed that bubbles were quickly dropping on my playing field, while they weren't dropping on his. Those bubbles got a bit annoying (they nearly reached what Bobblun called the "deadline"), but I managed to get rid of them.

After that, it got a little bit easier. Bubbles weren't dropping as often, and I even managed to pull off some small attacks. I even got to accumulate them into one big attack (which promptly dropped on Wolo like an avalanche) before bubbles started flooding me again.

I snuck a look at his playing field and saw that a huge chunk of bubbles were dropping off his field. I looked back at my field and saw my group of bubbles advancing closer and closer. He was loading the top of my field with his big attack! So that's what Bobblun meant by "top"…

I was still wondering whether that case was dumb luck or good strategy when my bubbles reached past the deadline. I had lost! Well, at least that wasn't unexpected.

I asked Bobblun what to do next, and he said that I would play against Green Wolo afterward. I was pondering whether this other Wolo was related to the Wolo I played against, but I quickly stopped thinking about it and decided to interact with my fellow league members.

I walked to the main area of Mog's living room, as most of the SBAM League was gathered there. The first person I met there was Moga, though.

"Hi, Mogu!" she greeted. "You've really joined this league?"

"Yes," I replied with conviction.

"Have you learned how to play this game?" she asked.

"Of course," I responded. "I've played against a couple guys so far."

"You should meet everyone," Moga suggested. "You might like some of them."

My sister. She's always so friendly with everyone. "I will," I called out as I left her and moved to the main body of people.

I soon smacked into a mildly familiar white Fetch. My sisters had invited him over to their house a couple of times before, so I had met him before. Thing was, I suddenly couldn't remember his name.

"You're…hold up…I've seen you before…but I can't remember your name!"

"I think I've seen you, too," the Fetch said in reply, then answered, "I'm Catch."

"Oh, yes, that's it!" My memory was triggered by the mention of his name. "I didn't think you would join!"

"I didn't think you would, either!" Catch responded. "So how are you?"

"Fairly good," I answered. "I've learned how to play and I've beaten someone already."

"Who, Katze?" Catch asked, though he didn't think I could beat this guy called Katze.

"Er…no. I've beaten Yam, though."

"He's usually bad at it, even if his brother's accompanying him. Anyway, are you trying to meet everyone?"

"Or at least as many guys as I can meet."

"Okay, then. Hope you have a good time with everyone!"

I left the Fetch and soon met Yam. He was still huddling close to the tall Izzard I now assumed to be his brother.

"Hello, Yam!" I greeted. "Who's your brother over there?"

"He's Tom, and I don't think he's feeling too good today," the young Izzard replied.

"Stupid Bom and Sam beat us today!" Tom grumbled.

"I didn't like it," Yam muttered.

At that moment, Bobblun beckoned me again, so I had to follow him.

"Bye, Yam!" I cried as I walked off towards another Bust-a-Move machine.

At that machine, I saw who I thought was Green Wolo. He looked just like Wolo, except he was green. A red Bobblesaur accompanied him.

"Hi, Bobblun!" the red Bobblesaur said.

"Hello, and thanks, Roja!" Bobblun responded before he distanced himself from me, spat some bubbles, and shouted, "Start!"

Green Wolo immediately made his move on his winch, and soon I was in trouble. My bubble formation only lurched two rows down before it stopped, though.

I emitted a small "Whew!" and settled back to my game. I soon found a cluster of orange bubbles with some green, blue, and purple bubbles underneath. I shot an orange bubble at the cluster and pulled off a big attack.

That attack only cause Green Wolo's field to heave down one row, so it was disappointing. But I soon managed to get another big attack, though it was mostly luck.

The rows just kept on cascading down! Poor Green Wolo couldn't handle it, and by the end, he was defeated. Then again, my win was only due to a fluke, and I knew it.

"Congrats!" Bobblun praised. "He's not bad, so at least you beat someone significant. It'll just get easier, though, as you'll be facing Pinky next."

Pinky was sounding a lot easier than Wolo, as far as I could tell…


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Same as before.

Note: The guys that are the same species as others (besides Mogu, the Bobblesaurs, and Fungur if I do include him eventually) are supposed to be the canon characters' recolourings in Super Bust-a-Move. For example, as you'll read in this fic, Winky is the yellow (and canon) recolouring of Pinky. Of course, these two gals are not totally identical besides their colour, and every other pair (or quartet for the case of Tom, Yam, Bom, and Sam) follows that. A good example of inequality is between Mr. At and Blackup (or Fungilo and Fungila).

Note 2: You're supposed to learn species correlations by now. For briefing, Mog and Moga are Mogs, Wolo is a Wule, Tom and Yam are Izzards, and Bobblun is a Bobblesaur. You'll eventually learn the rest (even for the two robots).

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**Chapter 3**

I soon got signalled by Bobblun, and he led me to Pinky.

"That pink Neko? She's Pinky," Bobblun introduced. "She's not too good, but those rainbow bubbles can be a pain."

"Hi! Uh…what's your name?" Pinky greeted with a bubbly voice.

"Mogu," I replied.

"I'll start the game now," Bobblun pronounced as he spat his usual load of bubbles. I saw a bubble machine to my right do the same.

I chucked a bubble at my field as Bobblun screamed, "Start!" That bubble helped build a small structure that I eventually toppled. A few of those, and soon I piled a row of bubbles onto Pinky's board.

Soon, though, I saw some weird clear bubbles with rainbows in them.

"What am I supposed to do with those?" I muttered before I remember what Bobblun had said. I tried popping some bubbles near them, and one of the rainbow bubbles turned orange.

"Great!" I cried as I popped the new orange bubble.

As Bobblun had said, I soon beat Pinky after I got the hang of how to pop rainbow bubbles.

"Good for you!" Bobblun congratulated. "You can wait in the living room until I can get Winky. I've heard that dinner will be coming soon, though…"

I hoped dinner wouldn't come before my game with Winky as I walked to the living room. There, I recognized one of the league members that Mog and Moga talked about. I still remember my sisters' description of him: they said he looked like a black rocket, which I thought was absolutely ridiculous until I met him.

"Hold up, I know my siblings have talked about you. You're…Blackup?" I asked.

"Spot on," the black rocket-robot replied.

"How was your day?" I asked.

"Fairly good," Blackup responded. "I lost against Pukadon, but I managed to win against Miss T and Reichu. And yours?"

"Busy," I replied. "I've played against four guys so far…"

"That'd be a regular day for me," Blackup commented.

"As far as I know, I'll probably end up playing double that today," I continued.

"Are you doing exhibition matches?" Blackup asked.

"Yes," I answered.

"Thought so," Blackup replied. "You'll be busy for a couple days with that. Some of us members are pretty good, so watch out for that."

"Oh yes…" I suddenly remembered something. "I heard Catch mention someone called Katze. Who's he, and is he any good?"

"Well, of course he's good, he's excellent!" Blackup responded with an escalating voice. "He's the toughest guy to beat in the league. I've only beaten him twice so far. You could get tips from Pukadon, Bom and Sam, or Mr. At, though; they've beaten him at least five times each."

"I'll ask tips," I said as I left.

I soon searched for Bom and Sam. Since their names sounded similar to Tom and Yam, I guessed that they were Izzards like them. I was right.

I soon smacked into a yellow Izzard that was in the midst of a big argument with an Izzard that looked like his elder brother.

"You're Sam, right?" I interrupted their argument.

"Right," Sam, the smaller Izzard briefly stopped quarrelling and looked at me. "I can't get Bom to see my point here. We would have won if we did tower-building against him, right?"

"Tower-building will not help against Mr. At," Bom argued back. "He also does that, and I can't see why you'd do that against him. Fierce whittling is more like what we should've done, and I did try to do that, but you kept on telling me not to do that so I couldn't do it very well."

"Sorry for the interruption, but what are tower-building and fierce whittling?" I meekly asked.

"Fierce whittling's blasting small groups of bubbles quickly so they slowly pile up on your opponent's area," Sam explained. "Tower-building's making a huge group of bubbles, then firing that. Tower-building makes you do more big attacks, while fierce whittling makes you do more small ones."

"I better do tower-building," I remarked.

"Slow down, fellow Mog," Sam interrupted, and then continued his explanation. "Tower-building's a little (I mean a _lot_) slower to set up and execute, but fierce whittling's somewhat faster. If you want to play risky but pounding, then tower-building's for you. Otherwise, fierce whittling should be good. Then again, some guys aren't at the speed or skill to do these, so they do whittling, destroying, or even blundering. Whittling is like its fierce version, only slower. Destroying is getting rid of every bubble you see and not building stacks or groups of them. And blundering's…only for those who have the barest idea how to play this."

"Ah, I see. And tower-building's a good strategy against another tower-builder?"

"I should think so, if it wasn't for my sometimes nitwit older brother…"

"Hey!" Bom didn't like that insult to his opinions. "It's fierce whittling that's good. You'd rather block all the opponent's entry points, right?"

"Tower-building's excellent as long as you set yours off first," Sam protested. "Then your enemy gets pounded and can't play their game."

"Sheesh, you can't see my way," Bom muttered.

"We don't agree that often about this sort of stuff," Sam said to me.

"I guess I got the advice I needed from you," I said. "Bye!"

I left the two Izzards and tried to find Pukadon (Mog and Moga told me about him, so at least I knew). I eventually found him playing a game against some sort of alien. Nope, that species did not exist on Planera. Then again, nearly half the members were aliens, as far as I heard.

"Hey, Pukadon! Who's that guy you're playing against?" I shouted over the berth everyone gave the Bust-a-Move machines.

"Fungilo," Pukadon shouted back.

"Weird name," I was about to say, until I realized that Catch and Blackup were pretty strange names, too.

"What species?" I asked again.

"I heard he's a Fungiloid," Pukadon replied as he started to lose concentration on his game.

I noticed that and responded, "I'll ask more later," just as Bobblun signalled me again. Apparently, Winky was now available, and just when I was about to find Mr. At!

I followed Bobblun again, this time to a yellow Neko. I wasn't surprised about the species.

"Are you related to Pinky?" I asked the Neko I assumed to be Winky.

"I'm her younger sister," she replied in a higher version of Pinky's bubbly voice.

"We better start this. We have only two days to go through everyone," Bobblun said as he spat his bubbles. I saw an orange Bobblesaur do the same.

"Who's that orange Bobblesaur over there?" I asked.

"He's Rurun. That guy's my older brother," Bobblun answered. "At least he's here, too. He usually blows the red and yellow markers for big and small attacks."

Rurun soon howled, "Start!" and the game began. This time, it was even easier than against Pinky. I had no trouble defeating her, and I even practiced my tower-building. That resulted in a lot of rows for Winky to handle.

"At least you can beat some of us," Bobblun said when I won. Then he scurried off towards the dining room. Rurun and Winky did the same. I thought that was unusual, until I saw Mog signalling dinnertime from far away.

"Hey, it is dinnertime!" I remarked as I ran off for the dining room. I planned to get a seat next to Mr. At for some strategy conversation.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Same as always.

Note: Some words of Fungiloid are in this chapter. No translations, though. Sorry. Alternatively, you can try translating the words from what I have said from Progeny of the Scientist.

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**Chapter 4**

I did manage to get a seat near Mr. At (I remember him looking a lot like Blackup, at least according to my sisters' description), but I was nearly out of range. I ended up sitting next to some black version of Catch and a red Pukay. Blackup was also nearby, and he was tethered to the wall much like the other rocket-robot. Mr. At was busy talking, so I decided to introduce myself to the people next to me.

"Hi, I'm Mog," I greeted the black version of Catch. "What's yours?"

"Reichu," the black Fetch replied.

"Ah, and how was your time?" I asked further.

"Pretty good, actually," Reichu answered. "Won against some others, but I had the misfortune to come up against Bom and Sam. I lost that. At least that was my only loss."

"You must be pretty good," I replied.

"I mainly squared off against weak guys," Reichu responded.

Mr. At had stopped talking by then, so I took that opportunity and told Reichu, "I'll talk more later." I then switched my focus to the white rocket-robot.

"Hi, I'm Mogu," I introduced myself. "And you're…"

"Mr. At," the robot completed my sentence.

"How's your day?" I asked.

"Decent," Mr. At replied. "Had to play against Katze multiple times today, and I won about half of those."

"You're excellent!" I exclaimed.

"Er…thanks, but I'm behind a couple of others," Mr. At humbly responded.

"Any advice you could give me?" I asked. "I'm only a beginner."

"Who else have you asked?" Mr. At asked.

"I've asked Bom, Sam, and Bobblun," I answered. I skipped Pukadon, as I got nothing useful towards strategy out of him.

"Nnn, Sam always misses one strategy when he describes all the possible things everyone could do," Mr. At replied. "That's the Antimeleon one. With that strategy, that person will use the normal strategy (such as whittling, destroying, or tower-building) that works the best against the current enemy. Of course, they use more than one strategy."

"That might be good if I only knew what everyone else did," I responded.

"You'll learn eventually," Mr. At kindly replied. "It's a bit hard to explain about everyone. Also, whom have you played against before?"

"Wolo, Green Wolo, Pinky, Winky, and Yam," I quickly listed.

"Learned anything about their strategy from them?" the white robot asked again.

"Don't think so. They didn't seem to have a strategy," I answered.

"I know some of them haven't quite got a strategy yet," Mr. At replied, "but I know that those Wolo twins do some amount of destroying. And by that, I mean the strategy. Are you really doing exhibition matches? I heard that from Blackup, but I think I need confirmation…"

"Yes," I answered again.

"If that's so," Mr. At continued his advice, "then you're probably playing against Miss T next. Just be warned: she plays pretty well, and she might cream you in your match. I guess I better give you her strategy in advance. She does some destroying, fierce whittling, and tower-building, but in no particular order and timing and not like an Antimeleon. Watch out for the switch."

"Thanks so much for the advice!" I exuberantly showed my gratitude.

"It gets to be nothing when you get at high levels," Mr. At responded.

I continued on my dinner, which tasted pretty good, as always. The red Pukay next to me, however, was groaning and clutching his stomach.

"What's wrong?" I asked the Pukay.

"Aagh, my gut," he moaned in reply.

"Hmm, what's your name?" I asked him (I thought he was male) again.

"Kame," the red Pukay managed to respond.

"Did you eat something funny?" I asked yet again.

"Probably," Kame responded. "I think it's the beans. I have gas again…"

"Watch out for his flatulence," Reichu joined in. "It's pretty powerful—and stinky."

"Can I go to the bathroom?" Kame asked.

"Of course you can," Green Wolo, who was sitting next to the red Pukay, answered. "You'd better."

Kame got off his seat and ran to the bathroom. We heard a loud fart afterward.

"Thank goodness it doesn't smell," Reichu remarked.

I finished my dinner (by that time, just about everyone else had, too), got out of the room, and decided to watch the first game I saw while waiting to play against Miss T. That game turned out to be Fungilo versus some weird-looking guy. I asked another spectator about the other guy.

"Hey!" I called out to the spectator, who was of the same species as Fungilo. "What's your name?"

"Hroa?" the spectator replied.

"What's the other guy's name?" I asked further as I pointed to the strange guy.

"Hroa? Rara ru ayror," the spectator replied further.

"Forget it," I responded and directed my attention to another spectator. "Hello!" I shouted to the purple Bobblesaur. "What's your name?"

"Burble," he replied.

"Okay," I responded and then asked, "Who's that guy over there?"

"He's Katze the Experimenter," Burble answered. "We have to call him that because he's some sort of chemist and his name is Katze. Unfortunately, we also have a member whose name is Katze, so things get messy if we don't distinguish between the two."

"How even do you think the match is?" I asked again.

"Not too even," Burble responded. "The Experimenter's better than Fungilo by a couple of tiers, but at least it isn't as unbalanced as Katze versus Mog."

The placing of his mention of my sister's name astounded me. "Mog's that bad?" I asked.

"She's about as bad as Winky," Burble replied. "Truthfully, Winky plays even worse, but her attack pattern is better, so the two are about equal."

"Okay," I replied as I watched the game. True to Burble's word, the guy I found out to be Katze the Experimenter was beating Fungilo by a fair bit.

Just at that time, I got signalled by Bobblun.

"I'm coming!" I cried as I ran toward Bobblun.

I arrived at another Bust-a-Move machine with the Delfin I assumed to be Miss T and a bubble machine. That pink Delfin winked at me. I assumed she did that to everyone.

After Bobblun and the bubble machine spat out their bubbles, the blue Bobblesaur screamed, "Start!"

I responded to the signal and started chucking bubbles with my machine. The game wasn't going so good, though, as I saw bubbles pile up in my field.

"Oh, great," I moaned as the bubbles nearly reached the line.

I took a small break and looked at Miss T's side. The Delfin was currently dropping some small towers at my side. I looked back at my field, but it was too late. All the bubbles in my field had turned silver and dead. I had lost.

"Sorry you lost," Bobblun consoled. "But hey, congrats! You just did a technique!"

"What's a technique?" I asked the blue Bobblesaur.

"A technique's something only the more advanced members do," he answered. "You just did one of them called recon."

"What's recon?" I asked further.

"Recon's when you look at your opponent's side of the field and figure out what strategy they're doing," Bobblun responded. "It's pretty useful, as long as you don't get too distracted. Some of the guys at the top tiers can do that and play decently at the same time. I don't know how they do it."

"I'd like to be able to do that," I replied, and then walked over to the crowd.

In the crowd, I bumped into Green Wolo again.

"Didn't I see you at dinnertime today?" I asked.

The Wule chuckled and then responded, "Of course! And I saw you, too! We can't not see each other if we were sitting that close!"

"Okay," I replied, and then asked, "How was your day?"

Green Wolo chuckled again and then answered, "It would've been better if Pukadon didn't barf in my face. Then again, he barfs pretty often. He barfs and farts practically every day. I'd like to pull a prank on him for that."

I didn't know Pukays could be that rude with their bodily functions. Then again, I didn't know that either Wolo was that mischievous. I walked away and met a pair of Bobblesaurs.

"Hi, who are you?" I greeted.

"We're Roja and Rija!" the Bobblesaurs enthusiastically replied.

"Which one of you is Roja?" I asked.

"I'm Roja," the red Bobblesaur answered.

"Oh, okay," I responded, then asked, "Are you going to help out someone soon?"

"Actually, yes!" the yellow Bobblesaur, who I assumed to be Rija, answered. "I got called by Bubblun. He wants me to help Blackup as soon as Pink T's available."

"Don't I have to play Pink T soon?" I asked in surprise.

"You'll have to wait," Roja responded.

"Okay," I replied, then walked over and followed the Bobblesaurs. They followed a signal from a green Bobblesaur and ran towards that Bust-a-Move machine. I did, too.

At that machine, I met a blue Delfin, the black rocket-robot, and the three Bobblesaurs. I asked the green Bobblesaur, "What's your name?"

"I'm Bubblun," he replied.

"Hold on, why is she called Pink T?" I asked Bubblun. "She isn't pink at all…"

"I heard it's because of a naming mishap," Bubblun answered. "Apparently, her parents were to name her Pink T, no matter what colour she actually was, but she was born blue. She got stuck with the name."

"I think it would have been more appropriate if she and Miss T switched names," I responded.

"I sometimes think that, too," Bubblun replied.

I decided to watch the game. It actually got pretty interesting, as the two opponents were fairly evenly matched. I also saw that Blackup kept on changing strategies until he stuck to one that worked. I then noticed someone else who was watching.

"Hi, and you're Fungilo, right?" I greeted.

"Ho…" the alien replied.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" I asked.

"Ho…ru…" the blue Fungiloid said again.

"I can't understand this guy, either," said another spectator. I wheeled around to see who owned that voice.

"Katze the Experimenter!" I gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"Just watching," he replied. "I've got a bit of a break. Do you?"

"Sort of," I answered.

"I guess we'd better watch," Katze the Experimenter responded as we looked back at the game. Blackup was in the lead, though Pink T was close.

After the game ended (and Blackup won by a hair), I saw Bobblun come up to me.

"I guess I'm going against Pink T now, right?" I remarked.

"Of course you are," Bobblun replied.

After Bubblun (who was with Pink T) and Bobblun unloaded their bubbles and commenced the game, I turned the winch to the right and released a red bubble. Pink T also did, and she blasted a small group of bubbles in the way.

After I played on (and mind you, I was losing), I let my eyes wander for a bit. My eyes caught a yellow bubble near Bobblun's mouth, so I looked at it for some time. I released my current bubble (which was blue), and then saw that the yellow bubble floated up to my trigger. I stopped looking that way and continued playing.

That distraction must have been a big one, because my field now had three more layers than it did before. Indeed, they were nearly extending beyond the line. I mustn't have noticed Pink T doing her accomplishment dance.

After shooting bubbles hopelessly (and knowing that I was doomed because I couldn't find any groups of two), I lost. I was about to express my disappointment when Bobblun said something.

"Sorry you lost," the Bobblesaur commented. "But, hey! You just did another technique!"

I wondered when I did that technique, but then I remembered that yellow bubble. "What's it called?" I asked.

"That particular one's called scrying," Bobblun answered. "That's when you actually bother to look at the bubble you are going to get next. It's mildly useful. Some of those top guys manage to keep one eye on that bubble at all times. I wonder how they can concentrate."

"I guess I'd better multitask to get to the top," I responded, and then ran off to the main crowd.


End file.
